The Right Hand

While, I admit, I don’t read a lot of prose, I’ve always been fascinated with the short story. It’s one of the reasons I enjoy Chris Nolan films too—his approach to film-writing feels a lot like he writes it as a short story or novella. I wrote this in 2009 for a creative writing class, and it’s a story I particularly enjoyed writing. I hope you enjoy reading it as much.

Prose | The Right Hand; 29-10-2009.

——

Andy sat at the booth furthest down from the front door of Kitty’s Kitschy Café, a Seventies diner near Guelph covered in lengths of B-list movie posters. She had been making an army of origami frogs while waiting for her friend Kyle to show up for their weekly meet-up-and-dine. Both have been regulars at Kitty’s for the past few years: Andy’s memorized every song on the jukebox and the waitresses can always tell what Kyle wants to order. At seven o’clock on every Monday, the two would meet here and eat. One night however—on the week after New Year’s—Kyle was particularly late.

“Can I getcha anything now, Andy?”

She was a bit startled by the waitress. “Oh! Just a refill of Dr. Pepper for now,” she said.

“Your weekly date’s not here.”

Looking around, Andy noticed she was the only customer left in the restaurant. “Heh. Well, it looks like he’s running late so I’m guessing he’ll be pretty scatterbrained when he gets in.”

“Right. Guess I’ll change his order then.” The waitress gave Andy a casual two-fingered salute as she walked back to the bar.

Unlike Kyle, Andy’s expression of emotion wasn’t sly enough to be seen through just body language or tone of voice. During high school a few years ago, Andy and Kyle rarely talked to each other because of an awkwardness that developed in the middle of their short-lived conversations. Kyle hung out more with Andy’s twin sister June, a regular Costello to his Abbot. He had a crush for the girl for a long time until June found this boyfriend around graduation; a rich kid in the same grade as the trio and—at the time—an under-aged drunkard. The boyfriend hasn’t changed, the exception being he’s now of age.

A chime rang from the front door. Kyle walked into the restaurant covered in a layer of light snow over his navy coat, his hands in his pockets. “French onion soup, Kyle?” shouted the waitress at the bar.

“Awesome. Thanks, babe,” Kyle answered with a grin. He briskly made his way to Andy’s booth—their usual booth.

Andy had a surprise for Kyle, hoping to tell him earlier that day. June told Andy that she broke up with her boyfriend. The couple got in a big argument at a friend’s New Year’s party and he stormed out of the friend’s apartment in a rage. At the time, Andy stayed home with the folks under a minor case of the flu. Apparently June’s boyfriend ended up in the drunk tank that night, but Andy didn’t get any details from June other than the drunken idiot was charged with assault.

“Hey, gorgeous. Sorry I’m late.”

Andy raised an eyebrow. “You okay?”

“Of course I am. Why wouldn’t I be?”

“You’re always flirty or charming when you’re nervous.”

“I can’t be that when I’m not?”

Andy glanced up and down Kyle, sitting across from her. “I don’t buy it. What’s up?”

“Hey, nice frogs!”

“Kyle!” Andy went into an angry whisper.

Kyle followed suit. “What!”

“I know something’s up. What’s in your pockets?”

“Pff! Nothing,” Kyle scoffed.

Andy went back into a moderate volume. “Oh, yeah? Show me your hand.”

Kyle placed his pocketed hands into his lap and quickly flashed his left hand before putting it back under the table.

Andy pouted. “Now, your right.”

Kyle flashed his right, noticeably quicker than he did his left.

“Wait a minute,” said Andy. Something wasn’t right. She calmly put her hands on the table, and then jolted to look under the table at his lap before he could react. After a short pause, she slowly sat up straight, with a look of bewilderment on her face. “Wha—wh…what happened to your hand?”

Kyle said nothing as his bandaged right hand now rested on the table.

“Kyle?”

“I, uh…it’s a stab wound. It was my fault and I was being careless. Almost hit a major nerve too.”

Andy quickly leaned back onto her seat, her head resting on the same hand she slapped onto her face. After a second of being dumbfounded, she burst into tears.

“Whoa, jeez! Andy, c’mon!” Kyle said while frantically fluttering his hands at her to calm her down. “Just—I seriously think you’re overreacting.”

“God, Kyle! You’re a Music major! What if you—”

“I know, I know. Just—Ahh!” He pulled his right arm back towards him, feeling a sharp pain from the wound.

The waitress at the counter heard them from the kitchen. “Everything all right out there?” she shouted from the back.

“Uh, yeah. Andy’s just, uh…” Kyle took some time to think his words over. “We’re gonna get some fresh air. She’s been waiting on me for a while.”

“Wha—what happened?” Andy was still sniffling when they stepped out in front of the doors.

Kyle put a firm grip around Andy’s shoulders to keep her warm. “You need to calm down about this. It’s no big deal and the hospital told me my hand will be fine once it heals.”

Andy snorted once more and sternly looked at him. “I said, ‘What happened?’”

“Honestly?”

Andy wiped her eyes and nodded.

“Well, I could’ve said it was a cooking accident, but I forgot that you know I can’t cook.”

Her look got sterner, making Kyle flinch. “Fine, I’ll tell you. I was walking back home in Hamilton after visiting some friends at a party. Since I didn’t have a date, I decided to leave an hour before the ball drop.”

“Why didn’t you call me? We could’ve hung out during the break!” Andy said, already forgetting she was sick.

Kyle ignored her statement and continued with his story. “While I was walking home, June’s face popped into my mind. I remembered the…” He coughed slightly before moving on. “…lustful wanting I had for her.”

Andy raised her hand to stop the narration. “Okay, too much info.”

Kyle laughed. “Hear me out. That’s only context, I assure you. Anyway, I realized that all this desire I had wasn’t for her. I figured out that I actually wanted to be with…” He paused. “Well, we’ve hung out for so long, and you’re the only reason I’m not making stupid choices or thinking stupid things. You’ve kept me sane for the past few years. I like how you’re different from June because you’re blunt. Being your straight man’s fun, and I’ve had more fun with you than your sister. What I’m saying is, well—”

Andy looked up at Kyle. “Huh. Weird,” she said, moving into a whisper.

Kyle blinked his eyes widely in bewilderment. “Well, that wasn’t what I was expecting.” He murmured to himself, “Then again, I’m not so sure what I was really expecting.”

“No, no! Sorry! I meant…that actually sounds nice.” Andy read the words through her mind another time. “Wow. Yeah, it does.” The two stared at each other smiling as the wind whistled along the street. Andy’s senses then quickly kicked back in. “Uh, but that doesn’t explain your hand.”

“Oh. Right! Well, I was a bit tired that night, so I sat on a bench outside the library along the way home to take a break. Lo and behold, who else bumps into me other than June’s boyfriend?”

“Huh?” Andy started to put two-and-two together.

“He looked like the two of them got out of a really bad fight. The jackass looked angry at everything and slipped out a knife.”

“Holy shit! You’re the assault victim?”

Kyle nodded. “I assumed June would’ve told you.”

“You’re the assault victim!” Andy started to burst out into laughter but stopped.

“I’m fine, if you’re wondering, but it is pretty funny. Health care and insurance helped out, so I got compensated at least. Think of this awesome scar-to-be as a reminder of my love for you.” Kyle smirked.

A big grin came to her face. “I guess I’ll have to.”

The two made their way back to their booth in the café. As they sat down, Andy mentioned, “By the way, June’s single now. I was gonna say that earlier.”

Kyle looked to the ceiling, looking thoughtful. “Huh. That’s too bad.”